How do you budget for video games?

[Lars]

I ration my game purchases with the time I can spend on them. I don't buy a new game unless I know I will have time to play it. I'm done having games still in their wrapping after a year, because it's a waste of money. One year later, that game is going to be 1/3 of the price.

[Merlin]

I have other things sucking my money at the moment. I bought plenty in 2018 though. I will probably buy the big blockbusters for the switch though. Pokemon and animal crossing. Not much else honestly unless something really hooks me. What I did do, what just set a simple limit per month with roll over. I stopped paying for runescape too which meant more money saved because I was paying for 2 accounts which was not fun to feel like I HAD to justify that money spent.

But as I said all my fun money is being sucked dry for more meaningful stuff like learning stuff and trying to be sort of entrepreneurial.

[Shazam2016]

What I am doing these days is pre-ordering all my games off amazon as soon as they are announced then topping up my amazon gift card account a little bit each month that way I can pretty much afford to get any of the games I want within reason on launch day

[[Formerly]NEET]

I have separate budget for games - one for games that i will play and sit it up to the end, and one for the ones i'd play for simple curiosity.

[Morax]

I like to use a magical power called the Steam Summer Sale with a hint of Extreme Patience

[ifnir]

I spend hours, sometimes weeks reading reviews from my selection of trustworthy reviewers. Then I pray for a +25% discount for AAA games, if it's indies I'm more likely to buy for full price, if reviews are good. It goes for everything, not just games.

[Ryan]

I don't budget them. I know I should, but I don't. When I feel like buying something - I get it. That can mean 1 game a month or multiple games a month. One year I might buy 30+ games, another year might just be 15. I have such a backlog, it's sickening.

[FeroxInimicus]

Buy everything on Black Friday for the most part you can get new games for more than half price..last BF I wasted about 140. Bought about 6 months of gaming, 6 months of gaming if I played everyday. By the time you are done with that stack you can afford games that came out earlier in the year because by time time it would of been month after their initial release.

[Henry09376]

If you have s bank acct. you can have a small amount taken out of your deposits and put in a special acct. used to use my best buy card to buy Sega Saturn games( yup I am that old) and pay of the balance in a month to avoid finance charges. helped establish a good credit rating too and I got games.

[LiquorandGunFun]

I just wait for sales or a good used price. I also stock up on xbl and ps+ around black Friday with super cheap deals, and set for a year or more, the monthly games that come with that over time is usually worth it keeping something fresh on one console or another every month, plus gamepass makes it easy to play new releases from MS on the cheap, got 6 months for $30 not too long ago.

[Majestic Boer Goat]

I just wait about a year after release, then I can get a game for $20-$30. There are very few games I will pay full price for anymore. This year, the only games I'm planning to buy at full price are Kingdom Hearts III and The Outer Worlds.

[KingConnor]

It’s quite simple really, if I won’t have money left over after a purchase, I won’t buy something.
People see savings as
“the thing I want to buy is £100, so I need to save £100 and then buy the thing”.
When in fact it should be
“the thing I want to buy is £100 so I need to save £150 in order to have money left over just in case”

i work, I have a student loan. It’s not too hard to save money to budget for games. Sure I’m priviledged in the sense that I live with my family, but I still pay rent every month and have lived on my own in japan for a few years as well (finances fully by me with no help from my family). I’ve worked since I turned 16.

[Djghost1133]

Very simple. I basically go through my checklist.

Game comes out, are the reviews good? If not ignore it until its $5 on steam at best.

If the reviews are good is it worth $X that the publisher is charging? If so i buy it (there are no more then 2 or 3 games that come out in a year which if worth buying at full price imo)

If not wait for a steam sale because lets face it its going on sale in a couple of months and i probably won't miss much and also have the advantage of playing a further polished version.